Communication Apprehension: Ebony's Story

When I was in my Junior year of high school, I worked at a non profit called Dreams for Kids. There was a leadership convention coming up at Northwestern University, and our organization was asked to speak. In the beginning I was not chosen to speak because all the spaces were full; however at the last minute they told me I was going to be a replacement for one of the girls. It was only 2weeks until the big event and I had a whole speech to learn. I was so nervous.

     All the speakers and myself would get together and practice in front of a mirror with our director; even in front of co-workers. My voice would shake and palms would sweat. It felt like as soon as it was my turn, someone turned up the heater. Eventually, it came down to crunch time. Our director took me to the side and talked to me explain that nobody is perfect and everyone gets Communication Apprehension. He suggested that I just practice as much as possible, take a deep breath every time and stay confident. Thus with this advice I went on to improve and on the day of show time I was ready!

To learn more about communication apprehension Click Here!    N.A (n.d.). Communication Apprehension. Cornell.edu. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from http://www.cns.cornell.edu/documents/CAPESBerggren3-2-05.pdf
This article defines and breaks down the causes of Communication Apprehension. It goes through outlooks, widespread, and how to deal with anxiety. It tells various ways to go about giving and preparing for a speech. This website even looks into pyshcological factors that may play and role and can help and one's understanding.

Here's another resource: McCroskey, J. C. (2009). Communication Apprehension: What Have We Learned in the Last Four Decades. Human Communication. A Publication of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association, 12(2), 157-171. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from http://http//web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=08fa10e0-441d-4a85-a030-ee992d33bc3e%40sessionmgr11&vid=8&hid=18

This article is from Pennsylvania State University and the author that wrote it is a professor of communication. In this article they discuss Communication Apprehension and look at how it has been one of the most researched things since the 1960's. He looks into the traits of Communication Apprehension and how that plays a role in the condition. The author goes into how these traits can be developed and looks into the past history of these traits to see what we can learn from them.